Meninga backs his Maroons to rebound

So Queensland are what Queensland are not used to; down. But coach Mal Meninga, while stressing that the Maroons had "a bit of work to do" in order to continue their winning streak, maintained his squad was far from out of it.

Bookmakers are not so sure, reacting to the Blues' 14-6 win in game one by slashing the winners' price to win the series while also posting the Maroons at longer odds than they have seen for some time.

"This hasn't diminished our self-belief, put it that way," Meninga said. "We know and we're very honest in the way that we appraise ourselves about what happened in the game. We're already talking about how we can improve.

"I'm pretty certain that we'll come back a much-improved footy side. We'll give our all in game two."

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"We had some opportunities in that first half . . . we were on top of the match, and we were putting a lot of pressure on the Blues," the hooker said. "But a couple of our passes weren't on the mark, and a couple of our kicks weren't the right kicks. We were just that five percent off where you need to be on.

"We're disappointed with the result but there are certainly a lot of positives for us to take out of it. I thought we played a great game of footy in the second half that we need to continue on into the Brisbane game.

"Overall, they [the Blues] played a great game of footy. We're not taking anything away from the Blues, they played extremely well. We know we need to be better next time." Particularly noticeable was a below-par performance by halfback Johnathan Thurston, who had taken a groin injury into the match. "He trained really well [on Tuesday], and he struggled a little bit, but he'll be back," Meninga said.

Asked if Thurston regretted playing, Meninga said: "That's a risk you take at times. He's such a quality player and a valuable player in our footy side. We gave him every opportunity to be fit, and he trained really well [on Tuesday] afternoon . . . it was all okay. Unfortunately he struggled a bit with that injury, but he'll be right for next game.

"It's a team call. We made a decision as a group that John was right to go."

Meninga will now be faced with some hard decisions. Does he tinker with a squad which has been so successful over so many years, or does he stick with the current group? Meninga said he felt his bench players performed well.

And he was yet to be convinced whether the Blues had the best chance of ending his side's run.

Asked whether the Blues squad was the best his team had faced over the past eight series, Meninga said: "Don't know yet. They played very well . . . they started the game very well, hung in there really well. We had a lot of opportunities to capitalise on our completions. We'll see what happens."